A group of Canadians, mostly from Saskatchewan, sent an Open Letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney today urging the government to keep human rights issues at the forefront of all discussions with the Eritrean government.

“We are deeply concerned the Government of Canada is making diplomatic overtures to the brutal Eritrean dictatorship of Isaias Afwerki, while ignoring the country’s human rights abuses,” the Open Letter states.

Read the Open Letter.

Canada is home to tens of thousands of Eritrean refugees, who have fled military conscription, slavery and gender-based violence over the last 30 years. On a per-capita basis, Eritrea is the third largest source of refugees in the world, behind only Syria and Sudan.

The United Nations insists all diplomacy with Eritrea must ensure “human rights issues remain at the core of all engagement. . .”

But according to a recent article by Geoffrey York in the Globe and Mail, Canada and other Western countries appear to be courting favour with Eritrea and downplaying human-rights concerns.

York writes that Canada’s high commissioner to Kenya, Joshua Tabah, visited Eritrea in mid-April “to put Canada-Eritrea relations on a more solid footing and to look for mutually beneficial partnerships.”

On a social media post following the visit, Mr. Tabah noted the interests of Canada and Eritrea were aligned on some issues, including a shared commitment to “sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

The signatories to the Open Letter challenge that statement: “How are Canadian interests aligned with a country whose human rights abuses have caused one-third of its population to flee?”

The letter, which also was sent to Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and High Commissioner Joshua Tabah, urges Canadian government representatives to:

Exert maximum pressure on the dictatorship to end its policy of military conscription, demand the release of the more than 10,000 people detained without trial, and push for democratic elections.